Illustrative image, Via: al-Arabiya
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Colonel Turki al-Malaki, announced on September 30 that the Royal Saudi Navy detected and destroyed two remotely controlled water-borne improvised explosive devices (WBIEDs) of the Houthis, which were on their way to hit the southwestern Kingdom’s port of Jizan.
“The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will strike with an iron fist all those who get involved with acts of terrorism, which threaten the safety of Saudi nationals, residents, economy and critical facilities … Those hostile acts will not go by without holding the ones executing, plotting and planning them accountable for their actions,” Col. al-Malaki said in an official statement, according to the UK-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
Hours earlier, the al-Masirah TV reported that the Yemeni Navy [loyal to the Houthis] had carried out a “special operation” against military targets inside the port of Jizan. The Yemeni TV channel said that several boats of the Saudi Coast Guard were destroyed as a result of the operation.
“The targeting of the Saudi Coast Guard boats in Jizan is a response to the strike on the fishermen’s boats in al-Hudaydah [in western Yemen],” said General Sharaf Luqman, a spokesman for the Yemeni military.
Prior to this attack, the Houthis claimed that they targeted the Dubai international airport with a “Samad-3” armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). However, the UAE denied these claims.
These operations are clearly an attempt by the Houthis to deter the Saudi-led coalition, which stepped up its aerial operations over Yemen in the last two months.
